Unless it is impossible, wait until the new year, and let them enjoy their holiday season, and these last wonderful memories of you as a complete family unit. If you look at the holidays as being about their needs above all else, it will help you to make it through them as well.

Even today, I am absorbing the total effect that the experience of "failing" at marriage had on me. And on the surface, I did fail -- miserably. But it wasn't for a lack of trying. I gave that relationship my heart and soul and -- ultimately -- my peace of mind.